Ever wonder what the Quran has to say about terrorism? Why Muslim women wear veils? What Islam teaches about Jesus?

Ask a Muslim. All you have to do is call 1-877-WHY-ISLAM.

A billboard advertising the toll-free number sprang up last month on FM 1960 near Interstate 45. Similar ones have also been posted in San Antonio, Dallas, El Paso and two dozen other U.S. cities.

The billboards are part of a nationwide campaign by the Islamic Circle of North America to educate non-Muslims about Islam and promote interfaith dialogue.

Calls to the hot line are answered in New Jersey by ICNA volunteers, who field an average of 1,000 queries a month on everything from the life of the Prophet Muhammad to the definition of jihad. The billboard also advertises a Web site, www.whyislam.org, where people can e-mail questions, participate in discussion forums, request free copies of the Quran, or schedule a visit to a mosque.

“The idea was to help answer the questions that people have about Islam,” said ICNA board member Hanif Harris, a 38-year-old Realtor from Clear Lake. “This way, they’ll get the answers directly from Muslims.”

Harris, who grew up in Philadelphia, converted to Islam in 1991. Over the years, he’s often had to correct misconceptions about Islam among co-workers and family members.

House Democrats blocked a measure that would have required new roads, bridges and schools funded by the $825 billion economic stimulus to be named after U.S. armed forces members killed in action.

Democrats on the House Rules Committee nixed the amendment Tuesday in a party-line 9-3 vote.

[…]

The other four amendments, each sponsored by Republican Rep. Steve Buyer of Indiana, would have provided $10 million for job training for homeless female veterans and homeless veterans with children; provided $20 million veteran work force training; supplied $1 billion for small business loans to veterans; and increased payments to veterans undergoing vocational training.

Republicans on the committee said the rejection of the McCotter amendment underscored the House Democrat’s tight control of the stimulus legislation, despite President Obama’s promises of bipartisanship.

“If there is something that needs to be heard on the floor it’s that,” said committee member Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Florida Republican. “They closed down the process.”

A little-discussed provision in President Obama’s economic stimulus plan would demand that every American submit to a government program for electronic medical records without a choice to opt out, and it has privacy advocates more than a little alarmed.

Patients might be alarmed, too, privacy advocates said, if they realized information such as documentation on abortions, mental health problems, impotence, being labeled as a non-compliant patient, lawsuits against doctors and sexual problems could be shared electronically with, perhaps, millions of people.

Sue A. Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom, said unless people have the right to decide “if and when” their health information is shared, there is no real privacy.

[…]

The next step, said Brase, is obvious: The government, with information about potential health weaknesses, could say to couples, “We don’t want your expensive children.”

“I think people have forgotten about eugenics. The fact of the matter is that the eugenicists have not gone away. Newborn genetic testing is the entry into the 21st Century version of eugenics,” she said.

Ahmed Bedier hopes to tell the story of the more than 1,300 Palestinians who have died due to the recent conflict in Gaza.

Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Council on American—Islamic Relations, spoke to an audience of about 75 people in the Reitz Union Rion Ballroom Tuesday night to enlighten them on the Israeli—Palestinian conflict in Gaza.

The event, “Gaza: A Struggle for Humanity,” was sponsored by Islam on Campus to show the Palestinian side of the conflict.

Bedier said the reason for Palestinians’ frustrations is the Apartheid Wall, a 436—mile long, 25—foot—high wall separating families from each other, children from their schools and farmers from their land.

He also showed the death toll for the Gaza conflict: nine Israelis and 1,314 Palestinians.

What the GOP seems oblivious to knowing and what I am trying to teach my students at Savannah State University is politics through a historical lens. That means we study politics (or any other subject for that matter) through the lens and judgment of history and through the non-partisan philosophy of Veritas — truth. All else is irrelevant propaganda.

That said, history has definitively demonstrated that since President Theodore Roosevelt, liberals (or “progressives,” which was what socialists and liberals were called 100 years ago) made policy proposals not with the intent of solving real social, economic, education, legal, race, class, gender problems, but to solidify their power over the people forever. Just look at some of the political philosophy, policy and legislation passed by presidential executive order or by illegal collusion with Congress over the past 100 years:

[…]

Rush Limbaugh was right — “liberals are liberals first.” Liberal Democrats create policies not to solve problems, but to win elections and make more and more people dependent on the government welfare programs they provide. Since FDR, liberals have used every Machiavellian tactic to create a Leninist groupthink mentality; a slavish and addictive dependence on government that Democrats hope will keep them in power in perpetuity. This is what Rush meant he said, “Obama’s plan would buy votes for the Democrat Party in the same way FDR’s New Deal established majority power for 50 years of Democrat rule.”

Talk Radio Network host Michael Savage recently pursued a copyright infringement and RICO lawsuit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for allegedly illegally publishing quotes and audio excerpts from the syndicated talk show regarding Islam out of context, and using them for fundraising purposes while damaging the value of Savage’s copyrighted material. While the initial lawsuit filed by Savage was withdrawn, CAIR attempted to extract attorney’s fees and costs from Savage that totaled close to $200,000.00. Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court (a Clinton-appointee) ruled in favor of Savage, denying the Islamic lobby group any attorney’s fees or costs.

CAIR later filed a motion for consideration, but that was denied as well.

Said Susan Illston, United States District Judge: “Defendants have filed a motion for reconsideration of the Court’s November 12 Order denying defendants’ motion for attorneys’ fees. The motion is scheduled for hearing on January 30, 2009. Pursuant to Civil Local Rule 7-1(b), the Court finds this matter appropriate for resolution without oral argument and hereby VACATES the hearing. Having considered the papers submitted, and for good cause shown, defendants’ motion is DENIED.”

I have known so many types of Moroccan/American families over the years. All are curious to me including my own. Married for over twenty years to my Moroccan “prince,” I have a fourteen year old daughter, and eleven year old son.

In the “beginning” of us, we agreed we believed in the same “God” and we seemed beyond much of our cultural holdings. It was just intrinsic between us that he had a religious background, and so did I. That foundational understanding and respect remains solid today. Having said that, when the children arrived, it started to get interesting.

Even though I grew up in U.S. Catholic schools, I wasn’t going to church anymore as a young adult. I was and am open to different faith traditions and still enjoy a strong spirituality that embodies universal values common in the worlds’ religions. (I take pride in the fact that my mother- in-law once said that I have a “Muslim” heart.) My husband fasts during Ramadan, avoids pork and after the kids arrived, no alcohol. He says the kids are Muslim and I say OK. So how does that translate to real life raising the kids?

President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of state contends American taxpayers are required to pay for abortions, a position that contradicts the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution.

James B. Steinberg’s written testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was highlighted by Sen. Jim DeMint, a pro-life Republican serving South Carolina.

In a written response to DeMint’s questions, Steinberg said the Mexico City policy — the newly overturned policy that forbade taxpayer subsidization of abortions overseas — “is an unnecessary restriction that, if applied to organizations based in this country, would be an unconstitutional limitation on free speech.”

Not so, said DeMint, pointing out Steinberg’s stance is in direct opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

DeMint cited the 1991 Rust vs. Sullivan decision in which the court ruled, “The government has no constitutional duty to subsidize an activity merely because it is constitutionally protected, and may validly choose to allocate public funds for medical services relating to childbirth but not to abortion.”

JERUSALEM — Following scores of denials he would trumpet the plan, President Obama today hailed a so-called “Saudi Peace Initiative,” which offers normalization of ties with the Jewish state in exchange for extreme Israeli concessions.

Defenders of Israel warn the plan would leave the Jewish state with truncated, difficult-to-defend borders and could threaten Israel’s Jewish character by compelling it to accept millions of foreign Arabs.

[…]

One senior Obama adviser was quoted telling the Times that on a visit to the Middle East last July, Obama said privately to the Palestinian leadership it would be “crazy” for Israel to refuse the Saudi Initiative, which Obama purportedly said could “give them peace with the Muslim world.”

A parent in the Clark County School District of Las Vegas, Henderson area reported today that his son, who is in 1st grade, came home yesterday saying that he didn’t want to go back to school anymore.

When asked why, the boy said that during the Pledge of Allegiance the teacher put up a large image of Obama next to the flag.

Thinking that the boy might be exaggerating, the man asked his son if he was sure, and suggested that by “large” he might mean an 8x10 photo of the president. The boy apparently said “No, it is a large picture of Obama and when we are done, the teacher turns off the image.”

The same thing was not done for President Bush last year.

After investigating this morning, the other parent reported that what the boy said was true.

The book How to Ruin the United States of America by Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth is right on target and I’d only suggest one change. The title of the book should be How We Are Ruining the United States of America, as that is exactly what is happening. The authors make the case that six things would ruin the United States, as we know it:

1.

Exile God from public life.

2.

Teach Americans contempt for America.

3.

Debase American culture.

4.

Weaken the United States military.

5.

Be a country without borders.

6.

Practice voodoo economics.

That’s exactly what we’re doing and that’s exactly why we better reverse course immediately, as we’re deep into this process.

[…]

The media and the institutions of higher learning have become the promoters of anti-Americanism. It’s hard to explain this but it happened. Perhaps its because both groups are dominated by liberals, by Democrats and by leftists who are the ones who took up the hate America course. The authors go into the more fundamental causes. I prefer to attribute this anti-Americanism to the mental disease called liberalism.

This development is closely related to another — the failure to teach and communicate the greatness of America in the history being taught to younger generations as they come along. America’s greatness and its Constitution were founded by brilliant men who had an understanding of the historical experience of man and what was necessary to create an institution that could assure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The foundation of our government and its perpetuation depend on a continuation of this historical understanding. But we find this history is no longer taught in any sensible way. If Americans no longer understand what a gem they have in our Constitution and our way of life, they will no longer have the dedication and willingness to fight and sacrifice to preserve what they have.

The authors make their point by outlining what history was taught in 1908 and what is taught now. In 1908, students had to master an incredible array of historical subjects. That is compared to what is taught at Brown University, an elite Ivy League School said to be on the cutting edge, now. It lists 18 courses in gender and sexuality studies and no fewer than 90 courses in African studies. Almost all the other courses on American history focus primarily on slavery and sexuality.

The bottom line is that their courses on American history teach a highly limited, highly negative and highly distorted picture, which would omit all of the most important aspects of our history. Instead of teaching the true history of this great nation, our schools are teaching what I would describe as somewhere between nonsense, gobbledygook and the irrelevant.

The authors think that colleges and universities went off the track during the Vietnam War when they were transformed from ivied tower institutions into catalysts for social change: “This meant discarding the old notion of the university as a haven for the disinterested pursuit of knowledge, and substituting a passionate political agenda of their own choosing …”

What they’re teaching now doesn’t even rise to the level of intellectual garbage. Two examples can make the point, as stated by the authors:

“According to Professors Barash and Webel (authors of Peace and Conflict Studies, an $87.95 textbook used in more than 250 Peace Studies programs), the American founding fathers were terrorists, while the terrorists in Iraq are patriots.”

“At the University of California-Davis, a professor told the class that the number one terrorist in the Middle East was Jesus Christ.”

On Nov. 4, 2008, America lost the war on terror. President Barack Obama’s feckless, pathetically apologetic perspective on foreign policy spells the end of the quest for liberty in the Middle East. It spells the end of America’s moral leadership in the global war for freedom. And it spells the end of a hard-fought campaign to protect America. Our enemies must be happily celebrating their great good fortune in America’s election of this platitudinous, morally relativistic, Jimmy Carter carbon copy in the midst of battle.

On Jan. 26, 2009, Obama granted his first television interview as president of the United States to Al Arabiya, the Dubai-based television network part-owned by the Saudi government. In the interview, he demonstrated with the utmost clarity that his understanding is inversely proportional to his arrogance.

He started by humbling America before the world. “(A)ll too often the United States starts by dictating,” Obama said, shame for his country dripping from his lips. “So let’s listen.” There was no call for the Muslim world, which has sponsored genocide after genocide, terrorist group upon terrorist group, to listen.

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. (will this create 1 job?)

b)

$400 million to study climate change. (What’s there to study? Its a climate change!)

c)

$200 million to revitalize the National Mall, including planting new sod.(BULLDOZE IT DOWN around $10,000 +removal!)

d)

$1.1 billion to allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a permanent board to ration health care services, a precursor to universal health care. (A Billion dollar BOARD OF HEALTH? Enough for FREE HEALTH CARE for a YEAR!)

e)

Hundreds of millions of dollars for contraceptives and family planning services through Medicaid.

f)

$650 million dollars for additional digital TV converter box coupons. (turn the TV off and get to basics, IDIOTS!)

g)

$166 billion in direct aid to help states pay their bills. (Due to illegal immigrants)

h)

$13 billion for reading programs.

i)

$15.6 billion to increase the maximum annual Pell grant (for college students) by $500 from $4,360 to $4,860.

j)

$3 billion to public health departments for additional immunizations. (immunize yourself from a DUMB Gov’t)

k)

$1 billion in additional funding to pay heating bills of low-income Americans. (Give them a JOB, clean the streets ANYTHING)

l)

$1 billion for the 2010 census. (To count illegal IMMIGRANTS?)

m)

$100 million for National Science Foundation scholarships.

n)

$200 million for nutrition programs. (Buy Macdonalds , Burger King and the rest of them foul places AND SHUT THEM DOWN!)

o)

$200 million to provide incentives to teachers to raise test scores. (Teach students how to write a check, pay a bill, apply for a scholarship, grocery shop, how to apply for a rental apt, EVERYDAY STUFF YA KNOW? BUT TEST SCORES? Bunch of Simpletons)

p)

$2 billion in additional funds for low-income child care.

q)

$900 million in additional funds to prepare for the pandemic flu. (WHAT? Probably find a cure for every disease in the world with that money!)

It wasn’t that long ago that my friend Bernard Goldberg told me he was never going to write another book. It was just a lot of hard work, he complained, and while he was working on one, virtually all joy was sucked out of his life. It made perfect sense to me. Besides, books take a lot of time to write, and Bernie, who wishes he’d grown another foot-and-a-half so he could have competed in the NBA, still needs to work on his hook shot.

Well, he lied. But at least it was in a good cause. I just read his latest slice-and-dice of the liberal media, “A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media,” and I was reminded what a travesty the MSM made of the First Amendment in its desire to ensure Obama’s victory.

There was a time, after all, when Americans actually had a rather high opinion of those who brought us the news in a fair and reasonably objective manner, and when editors and publishers didn’t allow their opinions to bleed all over the rest of the newspaper. But those days are long gone. Today, nobody trusts print or TV journalists. Liberals may have been delighted to find the MSM working overtime to get their guy elected last year, but in the final analysis, nobody respects a whore. Americans, whatever their politics, have no more reason to believe what they’re told by the members of the fourth estate than the Russians had when their news source was Pravda, Stalin’s propaganda machine.

There was big news out of the U.S. Senate on Monday evening but the major media were not paying much attention. By approving exposed tax cheat Timothy Geithner as President Obama’s Treasury Secretary, the Democratic Party was confirming and advertising itself as the party of Wall Street.

One day earlier, during an appearance on the CBS “Face the Nation” program, Vice President Joe Biden said the Wall Street Banks may need more than the $700 billion they have already been voted. He sounded sympathetic to their cause.

Wall Street control of the Democratic Party may come as a surprise or shock to those who have been led to believe over the years by the liberal media that the Republican Party is the party of fat cats, rich people, and special interests. But the vote count for Geithner, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, speaks for itself. Of the 60 votes in favor, 50 came from Democrats (including independent Senator Joe Lieberman). Only four Democrats (including independent Bernie Sanders) voted against Geithner.

Wall Street wanted Geithner because he had already been deeply involved in the bailouts of the big banks and had powerful political connections to such groups as the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the Group of Thirty, and the Council on Foreign Relations. In short, this former employee of Kissinger Associates was a Wall Street favorite.

But how could Obama, a controversial figure with a revolutionary Marxist background, communist connections, and socialist worldview, emerge as the favorite of Wall Street interests? The short answer is that he is the perfect front man.

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 27 — ‘I may have erred, but I never deceived’’ people over the economic crisis, said Spanish Premier, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, replying on TV programme ‘I have a question for you’’ to a battery of questions fired at him live by Spain’s citizens. To the many who accused him of having made a mistake on the eve of the general election of March 2008, in his forecasts of the economic crisis, the Premier reminded them of ‘having spoken at that time of what was then only an economic slowdown’’ because ‘nobody could have foreseen or forecast, no international body, the intensity of the crisis’’. Zapatero asked for ‘confidence and trust from citizens’’ over the fact that Spain will emerge from the recession. The first signs of recovery, said the Premier, will be visible “ at the end of the year and over the coming two years the recovery of growth ‘will be clear’’. However, the Premier acknowledged that ‘2009 will be hard for all’’ even though it will be better than 2008, which he called ‘nasty’’. Apart from the recession, the total of 40 questions ranged over the war in Iraq, abortion, the employment situation, the government’s relations with the opposition, violence, integrating differently able persons into the world of employment and arms exports. The broadcast, which was watched by an average audience of 6,432,000 viewers, took 30.5 pct share of the overall viewing public. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, JANUARY, 27 — Cyprus will file a case with the European Court of Human Rights against Turkey to clarify the fate of some 1,500 people who went missing during the 1974 Turkish invasion, the government spokesman said on Tuesday. “It was decided to take the missing persons’ issue to the Permanent Members of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and at the same time to the European Court of Human Rights,” Stephanos Stephanou told a news conference. The action comes amid outrage in Cyprus after Turkish actor Attila Olgac said on television in Turkey on Thursday that during the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus he killed ten Greek Cypriots, one of them a 19-year-old soldier, taken prisoner of war, who was killed in cold blood. Olgac subsequently retracted his confession, claiming he was actually talking about a film scenario. Olgac’s confession was discussed during a meeting between Cyprus President Demetris Christofias and Cyprus Attorney-General Petros Clerides. “During the meeting it was decided that the issue will be brought to the CoE’s Committee of Ministers in the framework of 4th interstate application of Cyprus against Turkey, and at the same time to appeal to the ECHR,” the Spokesman said. (ANSAmed).

The introduction of hate crime legislation brings a subjective element into the legal system. Where typically Lady Justice is blind and only takes objective facts into consideration, disregarding the position and the opinions of those committing the crimes, she may now apply the law unequally and selectively. Our societies subsequently risk losing an important principle of Western law, viz. equality under the law. Europe has already gone further down this road than America, but the U.S. is following fast in Europe’s tracks.

A campaign warns of the anti-Semitic and violent tendencies in Islam by banners placed at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin and Autobahn bridges in Germany and Austria.

A banner was placed today at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin which reminds of anit-semitic and violent tendencies in Islam by displaying quotes from the Quran and the Hamas charta.

In the German cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Heidelberg, Konstanz, Unna, Brunswick and Bielefeld banners with the slogan "Islam or Freedom” were hung from Autobahn bridges.

The objective of this campaign was to raise awareness of the threat which militant islam poses to Western societies. By quoting the Quran and other islamic sources the campaign exposes Islam as not a religion, but a totalitarian political ideology which contradicts the values of enlightenment and human rights.

"Germans should have learnt from their history that the enemies of tolerance may not be tolerated”, says a spokesperson of the group responsible for the campaign.

"They could not believe that Hitler would really do all the terrible things he had announced in his book. We shall not make this mistake again, but read the Quran carefully, take it serious and help people from Islamic cultures to free themselves of the totalitarian aspects of Islam.”

Many people in Western societies have never read the Quran. They cannot imagine that a "Holy Book” in unmistaken terms and in numerous places calls its readers to kill Jews, Christians and other "unbelievers” until “all worship is for Allah alone”. But it is a fact that Islamic terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah or Al-Quaida justify their inhuman activities by the Quran’s mission to spread Islam by all means, including war and violence.

Rome, 27 Jan. (AKI) — At least 600 children are at risk of infibulation, an extreme form of female genital mutilation in Italy, according to conservative MP and president of Italy’s Association of Moroccan Women, Souad Sbai.

“Every year in Italy there are 600 children, daughters of immigrants, that are at risk of infibulation and it all happens in total silence,” said Sbai, while presenting a report by her organisation, Acmid-Donna.

“Here at Acmid-Donna have decided to sound the alarm about infibulation because unfortunately we have noticed that the practice has anything but ceased or been relegated to marginal communities of immigrants in Italy.”

Sbai also spoke about the number of infibulated children after the approval of the 2006 Consolo law, enacted to prevent and prohibit female genital mutilation.

“We are particularly concerned about the rising number of infibulated children even after the Consolo law,” she said.

However, Sbai said that the law was not enough to stop the cruel practice of female genital mutilation.

“Besides laws, we need to take strong action to oppose this tribal and wicked practice which has nothing to do with religions and is tied only to African cultural traditions,” she said.

Sbai also accused Egyptian and Somali imams of influencing the immigrant community and the importance of making public opinion aware of the problem by starting a preventative policy.

Infibulation — the most extreme form of female circumcision is common in many parts of North and Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Somalia, parts of Kenya and Ethiopia.

Italy’s 2006 Consolo law banned genital mutilation, also making it a crime for parents who attempt to sidestep the law by sending their daughters abroad.

(AGI) — Rome, 26 Jan — This year’s ‘Day of Remembrance’ is dedicated to the Racial Laws of 1938, ‘‘one of the worst pages, one of the most negative acts in Italy’s history: as far as we are concerned, the University is an open and free place for research and debate, where any subject can and must be addressed by researchers and experts in the field’’, said Rector of the Sapienza University, Luigi Frati, and President of the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy, Guido Pescosolido, during the ‘‘day of study on the racial laws of 1938’’ meeting, part of the ‘Day of Remembrance, in the presence of chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, who did not hide his ‘‘deep disappointment’’ over the pardon by the Vatican of the Lefevre bishops. What Di Segni, on behalf of the Jewish community, finds ‘‘unacceptable and incomprehensible is to deny the Holocaust’’. The University as a place of research and debate.

‘‘We defend knowledge and consciousness with balanced judgement based on scientific evidence, of which the racial laws of 1938, coming out of the Fascist state, are one of the worst pages in the history of Italy’’. And the University can do a lot. ‘‘Of course, feeding and helping the collective consciousness, above all among young people, to grow up with a clear knowledge of the facts and events, so that they are not repeated, said Pescosolido. Frati added, ‘‘The University is a seat of research, reflection and in-depth analysis of all the themes, even the most difficult and complex ones: debate is open and free but it is the experts, the researchers and the qualified people who conduct similar events’’. This is how today’s event, on the ‘racial laws of 1938’ has been organised. ‘‘Open and free debate affects everyone’’ said Frati, ‘‘and everyone has the right to give their opinion, including the young people of the Onda: in the context of a demonstration or meeting whose main contributors are the experts, and the academics’’.

A majority of Rosengård’s inhabitants believe the troubled Malmö suburb has undergone a radicalization over the past five years, a new study shows.

Experts believe the city council needs to be allocated greater financial resources if it is to get to grips with the rise of political and religious extremism.

Researchers Magnus Ranstorp and Josefine Dos Santos from the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College were tasked by the government with examining the effects of preventive measures taken in Sweden against violent extremism and radicalization.

As part of their studies, the researchers conducted extensive interviews with school personnel and police officers active in the Rosengård district.

The vast majority of respondents were of the view that the predominantly immigrant suburb had become considerably more radical over the last five years.

Ranstorp and Dos Santos describe how “ultra-radical” Islamists attached to basement mosques “preach isolation and act as thought controllers while also maintaining a strong culture of threats, in which women in particular are subjected to physical and psychological harassment.”

“Newcomer families who were never particularly traditional or religious say they lived more freely in their home countries than they do in Rosengård,” the researchers write.

Rosengård district committee chairman Andreas Konstantinides (SocDem) said he shared the researchers’ concerns about “thought police” controlling the climate of expression in the area.

“I actually think these radical individuals are limited in number. But they exert an influence through manipulation and exploiting the situation.”

Konstantinides said he viewed the moderate Muslim majority, who are irritated and concerned by the radicals, as a resource with which to counteract their rise.

“We need to try to mobilize the forces for good. We cooperate well with the Islamic Center, for example, which runs the main mosque in Malmö,” he said.

“It is completely unacceptable that there are fundamentalist groups in Rosengård prescribing child marriage, harassing women who don’t wear headscarves and encouraging young people to isolate themselves from society. Swedish laws, rights and equality apply to everybody, including the residents of Rosengård,” Sabuni said in a statement.

The minister added that a series of coordinated measures were necessary in order to tackle radicalization, involving schools, social services and the police.

Rosengård was the scene of extensive rioting in December following the closure of an Islamic cultural centre in the area.

Vatican City, 26 Jan. (AKI) — A senior Vatican cleric tasked with promoting dialogue between the Catholic Church and Judaism has criticised a recently rehabilitated bishop who denied the Nazis’ extermination of six million Jews during World War II. Cardinal Walter Kasper, director of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, criticised the traditionalist bishop, Richard Williamson, for his controversial denial of the World War II Holocaust.

In an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica, Kasper, who is also the liaison for Vatican-Jewish relations said of Williamson’s statements: “These are unacceptable words.To deny the Holocaust is stupid and is a position that has nothing to do with the Catholic Church.”

Williamson was among four schismatic bishops whose excommunication was revoked by Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday. The move sparked indignation among Jewish groups and liberal Catholics.

The four rehabilitated bishops came from a sect founded in opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The bishops are members of the St. Pius X Society, founded in 1970 by a French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, in opposition to Vatican II reforms.

They were excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in 1988 after Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated them in unsanctioned ceremonies.

La Repubblica quoted Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni , saying it was the Lefebvre movement — not just Williamson that is problematic.

British-born Williamson has made a number of statements denying the full extent of the Holocaust. In a recent television interview he said the “historical evidence” was against six million Jews having died in the Nazi gas chambers.

The pontiff’s move to rehabilitate Williamson triggered sharp criticism from Robert Rozem, head of the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem.

Rozem said it was “scandalous” that someone of Williamson’s status should deny the Holocaust. He described his remarks as “unacceptable and hateful.”

The Pope is due to visit the museum during his visit to Israel in May.

In an apparent defence of his rehabilitation of the four schismatic bishops, the Pope in his televised Angelus address on Sunday, said “courageous gestures of reconciliation are needed between us Christians.”

Kasper also praised the Pope’s move describing it as “a gesture to favour the reconstruction of a united church.”

“I understand that Williamson’s comments may cast a shadow over relations with the Jewish community, but I am sure that dialogue will continue.

“We have good relations,” Kasper said. “Events in Gaza have complicated things,” he added, referring to Israel’s recent military offensive in the coastal strip, which killed 1,300 Palestinians and injured over 5,000.

The chief rabbi of Venice Enrico Richetti earlier this month announced a boycott of the Church’s annual celebration of Judaism saying decisions by Benedict were undermining years of interfaith progress.

Jews have also criticised moves by the Catholic Church to beatify Pope Pius II on the grounds that he did not do enough to save Jews in Italy during World War II

(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, JANUARY 27 — In the second half of 2009 Croatia wants to increase its foreign debt to be able to pay the instalments for its foreign debt which has almost reached 90pct of its GDP. The decision to finance its deficit through foreign loans, announced by Finance Minister Davor Suker, was taken to keep cash available for the economy and the citizens on the domestic market in this time of financial crisis. The size of the loan has not been specified nor if it will be carried out through State bonds or credit, though analysts speak of at least 750 million euros. Meanwhile the government wants to ask the banks of Croatia for a 1 billion euro loan to finance the normal function of the State until May. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JANUARY 27- Serbian finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic, cited by the Serbian media announced that Serbia has decided to reduce customs taxes on imports for products coming from the European Union starting in February. She added that the reductions will vary depending on the products. Customs taxes for automobiles coming from the EU will be reduced from 20pct to 10pct. She also said that this was a unilateral application by Serbia of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) signed by Belgrade and Brussels in April but has not been applied by the EU due to the Netherlands’ opposition, which will only give the go ahead when Ratko Mladic, the last war criminal in hiding in Serbia is arrested and extradited to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. The minister continued that Belgrade initially intended to implement the reductions in early January, but the go ahead was given by Parliament last week with an amendment to the law on customs taxes. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JANUARY 27 — A European mission to check whether Serbia is “fully cooperating” with the International Criminal Court” (ICC), was called for yesterday by Serbia’s Foreign Minister, Juk Jeremic, and the end of the meeting of the EU-Serbia troika. At the heart of the EU, the Netherlands is opposing enactment of preliminary agreements for Serbiàs approach to the EU (the Association and Stabilisation Accord, ASA and a transit trade agreement) until Belgrade arrests and consigns Ratko Mladic, the last of the top former Yugoslav fugitives, to the Criminal Court of the Hague. “The EU is asking us to cooperate fully with the ICC, but that is what we are doing already: our Government is in no doubt; it is a priority for us”, Jeremic said. He challenged the 27 to prove the contrary: “We invite an EU mission to verify directly on the ground how much Serbia is committed in this direction, to report it to Brussels”, he said. For its part, the EU is not responding directly to the Minister’s request, which would place the role of the head procurator of the ICC, Serge Brammertz, in difficulty, who is the sole deputy charged with drawing up reports on cooperation between Serbia and the ICC. Commissioner Olli Rehn is nonetheless optimistic about Belgradés chance of joining the EU: “2009 really could be an important year for relations between Serbia and the EU and in this spirit I hope that liberalisation of visas comes soon: a very important factor for students”, the Commissioner said. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 27 — The German Development Bank decided to provide grants and soft loans to Egypt to protect the environment from pollution, curb the harmful emissions and get rid of the industrial solid waste. The grants will be provided to the big industrial installations, the immediate and small enterprises in Lower Egypt and the Upper Egyptian governorates according to a programmés timetable until the year 2012. Executive Director of the programme said that the minimum of the grants provided by the German Dvelopment Bank of the Egyptian private and public sectors will be 15, 000 euros while the maximum will be 80,000 euro. Moreover, the German Development Bank will finance a proportion of 50 percent of the feasibility study costs for the bigger projects whose sales’ volume will surpass L.E 20 millions (about 2.8 million euro). (ANSAmed)

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 26 — Spain and Morocco will increase their efforts to fight terrorism and organised crime, trafficking of drugs and people in particular. The Interior Ministers of both countries, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba of Spain and Chakib Benmoussa of Morocco today committed in a meeting to “developing new methods for bilateral cooperation” to consolidate the capacity of security forces and to “manage” the problem “with shared responsibility” and “mutual trust”, as a joint note issued today after the meeting announced. The two ministers also agreed to intensify cooperation between the security forces of the ports of Tangier (Morocco) and Algesiras (Spain) to optimise the transit of people and goods between the two countries and to fight illegal trafficking. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — VENICE, JANUARY 27 — NUR editions has today published a guide to Venice in Arabic, dedicated to the classic city’ and to the high quality reception available, and aimed at the rising trend in the number of tourists from Arab countries. The book was presented in the Venetòs regional administration building earlier today. “Venice was a bridge between the East and the West”, said the editor Ihab Hashem, “I didn’t know quite how closely the city was close to the Arab world until I started work on the guide”. According to Hashem, the increase in the number of toursists is not due just to vistors from the Gulf countries, but also from nations such as Egypt. “Venice is in any case a major destination for Saudi tourism”, the director of Saudi air lines Faisal A. Al-Saddik said, “and with this guide which explores the cultural aspects of the city I think that the number of Saudi tourists will increase greatly”. “Venice is very open to the world and it has always been a symbol of opening and dialogue, especially with the Arab world”; the Vice President of Veneto regional council Franco Manzato stressed, “and in this crisis period which we are facing, these intercultural exchanges are fundamental.” Manzato said he also hoped that further air routes would open, with the cooperation of the Veneto Region. The regional Tourism councillor Danilo Lunardelli remarked that the “publication of this major Venice guide book coincides with the forthcoming visit of the Undersecretary Brambilla to the United Arab Emirates and Katar to promote the made in Italy’ brand”. (ANSAmed).

(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 27 — Fishing in the Mediterranean has spread to the Red Sea. Not just in the search for new resources, while protecting the environment, but also to take the Sicilian model from Mazara del Vallo as far as the gulf of Aqaba, which is capable of sparking off development processes in other countries in the area. A delegation from the fishing production district of Mazara del Vallo is leaving on January 31 on a mission to Jordan, where it will lay the foundations for cooperation analogous to that begun with Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. The objective is to launch a joint venture in the Aqaba region with the Jordanian authorities and business for a first nucleus similar to the Sicilian model, explained President of the District Giovanni Tombiolo. To begin not just with fishing, while respecting the rich natural heritage of the sea, but also the opening of new enterprises in aqua-culture and the freezing process, which IS preliminary to commercialisation. “This is a completely new philosophy” explained Tombiolo, recalling the principles which led to the formation of the Permanent Forum for the Mediterranean, “which is neither colonisation nor delocalisation of production, nor simply exportation of the zone. We are bringing the culture of the production zone with a project of sharing with out local partners”. The district of Mazara del Vallo, which includes 830 associated businesses, 2,200 workers and 260 million euro in earnings, depends on a large number of immigrant workers, observed Tombiolo. But seeing as it is “urgent to move part of the fleet away from our continental platform to richer fish reservoirs”, the road chosen is one of cooperation with neighbouring countries. And to no longer send single boats, but to launch good development processes, able to give life to business activities along the whole production line and contribute in stopping the flow of immigrants to Italy. From the district of Mazara to the Mediterranean District, “which we bring all our knowledge to, while Sicily is developing its role as a ‘hub’ for the whole sector”. This means, as a terminal and directional centre for the Mediterranean district as a whole, where Sicily’s ‘brains’ can be utilised, which have also been forced to emigrate until now. But if the coming transfer to Jordan is just an initial exploratory mission, where the Sicilian delegation will be received by the Minister for the Ports of the Kingdom, the relationships with the other three countries involved so far have already been consolidated. In fact in Tunisia seven or eight businesses have already been started up, said the President, and six trawlers are ready to set out in February to Egypt, with whom Minister Zaia has already signed an industrial cooperation agreement. We are waiting for definitive approval of the treaty by the Libyan Parliament, but a protocol agreement has already been signed with the Bengasi Chamber of Commerce in Libya for the use of a free-trade area at the port. In the meantime the Permanent Forum for the Mediterranean is proceeding along its path: sprung from a proposal by Malta and supported by Algeria, it already has the agreement of the ICE and SIMEST and is also looking to Greece, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Turkey. The finishing point will be in May 2009, when the Charter for fishing cooperation in the Mediterranean will be signed by the Ministers concerned. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 26 — Egypt has imposed a supplementary tariff of USD 90 per ton on imports of refined sugar, which is to be added to the 10% charge already in place. The Italian foreign trade commission reports that the measure, which contrasts markedly with the Egyptian government’s policy, since 2004, of progressively cutting tariffs, was taken following an abnormal increase in the quantities of sugar imported in recent months. The country’s industry minister has also justified the tariff by saying that it is in line with forecast special World Trade Organisation measures aimed at protecting producers in individual countries. Egypt consumes 2.2 million tons of refined sugar per year, of which 1.4 million tons are produced locally, while the rest is imported — principally from Brazil. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 27 — The Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said that during a meeting with his European colleagues on the situation in the Gaza Strip following the Israeli operation ‘Cast Lead’, he had “put them on guard against deploying naval units in the European territorial waters bordering Gaza”. During a joint press conference with the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Javier Solana, the minister said that “this would mean EU states would be deploying naval units in Palestinian waters to carry out a role that Israel should be responsible for”. “The step would have negative repercussions on the future relationship between Europe and Palestine, Arabs and Muslims”, he concluded. The deployment of European naval units in waters off the coast of Gaza was suggested as a maritime patrol service to prevent weapons reaching Hamas, and has so far been carried out only by France. Israel argues that arms are smuggled in both from the sea and through the tunnels under ground across the border of the Gaza Strip with Egypt, which were constantly bombed during the 22 days of the Israeli offensive. Egypt instead claims that the tunnels are used above all for smuggling food and goods into the Strip, which could not otherwise arrive due to Israel blocking the crossings for the last 18 months, whilst the sea is the principal source of arms trading. During the press conference held with Solana, Abul Gheit added that during their meeting the European Representative and Mubarak had discussed the rebuilding of the areas destroyed in the bombarding of Gaza, the Iranian nuclear programme and “Teheran’s behaviour in the Middle East”. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — TEHERAN, JANUARY 27 — Iran has summoned the Egyptian chargé d’affaires to Teheran to protest the fact that an Iranian ship was not allowed to moor in an Egyptian port. The Islamic Republic claims the ship was carrying humanitarian aid for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. The leader of the Middle East Department of the Foreign Ministry, Isna writes today, has conveyed the “serious protest” of Iran to the Egyptian diplomat for a rejection which, according to Teheran, cannot be “justified in any way”. The ship, which according to the Iranian Red Crescent transported 2,000 tonnes of food and medicines, was forced by Israeli troops to turn around while it was preparing to dock in Gaza on January 14. The ship then headed for the Egyptian port of Al Arish, some 80km to the west, where it wasn’t allowed to enter. Since then it has been waiting in international waters. Iran wants Egypt to allow the goods to be unloaded at its port and transport them to Gaza. (ANSAmed).

Tripoli, 26 Jan. (AKI) — Libyan interior ministry mediators managed on Monday to restore calm at the central prison in the capital, Tripoli, after a riot broke out at the jail late on Sunday. The mediators persuaded prison inmates to return to their cells peaceably, Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera reported.

Ambulances took to hospital two injured prison guards and several prisoners suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation after rioters started a fire when negotiations stalled overnight.

Four prisoners identified as the alleged ringleaders of the riot have been transferred to another prison, Al-Jazeera reported.

The rioters are asking for a law to be implemented in Libya giving shorter jailterms and better conditions inside the country’s prisons.

(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JANUARY 27 — Negotiations for Algeria’s adhesion to the World Trade Organisation “are proceeding” and are at a “very advanced” level, said Algeria’s Minister for Trade, El Hachemi Djaaboub, during a meeting with Algerian and Brazilian economic operators which opened this morning in Algiers. “Algeria has decided to go ahead in its process of global integration” said Djaaboub, saying that “negotiations with the WTO are at a very advanced level. When Algeria is part of the WTO, it will work alongside nations such as Brazil to defend the interests of countries of the south”. Premier Ahmed Ouyahia declared during his last visit to Tunis in December that the adhesion process into the WTO “is not easy” due to conflicts of interest among the various members. According to the Algerian press there are several points which continue to block negotiations which have been under way for years, including: the liberalisation of banks and monetary policy, financial and administrative transparency, intellectual property and health measures, and in particular the opening up of the energy sector and the price of gas. (ANSAmed).

In an article earlier this month, “Israel’s Strategic Incompetence in Gaza,” I made three points: that the Israeli leadership unilaterally created its current problems in Gaza, that the war against Hamas meant ignoring the much larger threat of Iranian nuclear weapons, and that the goal of empowering Al-Fatah makes no sense.

These arguments prompted an earful from readers, who made interesting points that deserve answers. Slightly editing the questions for clarity, I reply to some of them here: […]

(ANSA) — Jerusalem, January 28 — Pope Benedict XVI’s strong stand against denying the Holocaust was welcomed Wednesday by the highest Jewish authority in Israeli, which had threatened to sever ties indefinitely with the Vatican.

The Chief Rabbinate’s action was in protest to the pope’s decision to lift the excommunication for a traditionalist bishop who denied the existence of the Holocaust.

Speaking at his Wednesday audience, Benedict reiterated his full support for his ‘‘Jewish brothers’’ and said the Holocaust must not be denied because ‘‘the memory of the Shoah regenerates our humanity and helps us reflect on the unexpected power which evil can exert on the hearts of man’’. The importance of the Shoah, the German-born pope added, ‘‘cannot be denied nor diminished because violence committed against even one man is violence against all men’’.

The director general of the Chief Rabbinate, Oded Wiener, later told ANSA that the pope’s words were ‘‘a great step forwards in resolving this question’’. ‘‘His statements were very important for us and for the whole world,’’ he added.

Wiener said that no decision had yet been made on whether the Rabbinate would send a representative to a March 2-4 meeting in Rome with the Catholic Church’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jews.

Initially it had been decided to cancel the meeting, but this was before the pope’s words on the Shoah, he added.

The work of the commission, created eight years ago by the late Pope John Paul II, ‘‘is extremely important for the dialogue and exceptional personal relationships it has created,’’ Wiener said. At the center of the dispute is British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, one of four traditionalist bishops whose excommunications were lifted Saturday.

Williamson, a member of the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X, only recently reiterated his belief that there were no gas chambers and only 300,000 Jews died in the Holocaust, not six million.

In regard to the decision to lift the excommunications, Wiener told ANSA that the Rabbinate ‘‘has no desire, cannot and has no interest’’ in interfering in church affairs.

However, he added, the case of Bishop Williamson had taken on additional meaning in the wake of a new surge in anti-Semitism and a growing number of deniers ‘‘especially in Germany.

Lifting Williamson’s excommunication within a week of his reiterating his views on the Shoah and the marking of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Wiener explained, ‘‘demonstrated a lack of sensitivity which had repercussions throughout the Jewish world’’. The Society of St Pius X was created in 1970 by late dissident French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who broke with Rome over the changes made at the Second Vatican Council, the ground-breaking meeting of all the world’s Catholic bishops in the early 1960s. Among the changes the group opposed was the decision to celebrate Mass in local languages rather than Latin and state that Jews today should not be blamed for the death of Christ.

Lefebvre was excommunicated for ordaining four bishops, including Williamson, in defiance of a direct order from John Paul II. The four bishops were also excommunicated.

Efforts by the Church to avert a schism and keep Lefebvre and his followers in the fold were orchestrated by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who went on to become Benedict XVI.

During his Wednesday audience, the pope said the four bishops who were let back into the Church’s graces would have to respond to his gesture by renewing their loyalty to the Church and its teachings, including the changes made by the Vatican Council.

These were among the conditions that he had originally set down in 1988 but which Lefebvre had rejected.

On Tuesday the current head of the Society of St Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, denied that Williamson’s views reflected those of the order and apologised to the pope for any problems his statements may have created.

The Society of St Pius X is the largest group of traditionalist Catholics in the world. It has close to 500 priests and is active in 63 countries.

DENIER ROW ‘WON’T AFFECT POPE VISIT’

The row Bishop Williamson will not affect the pope’s planned trip to the Holy Land this spring, Israel’s Ambassador to the Holy See told ANSA Wednesday.

Mordechay Lewy said the pope’s reiteration during his Wednesday general audience that the Holocaust cannot be denied was ‘‘very clear…and useful for clearing up the misunderstanding that arose in the last few days’’.

‘‘Anyone who heard the pope’s words now knows perfectly well what side the Church is on,’’ Lewy said. He said it would be ‘‘mistaken’’ to give the anti-modernist Williamson the power to affect relations between Israel and the Holy See. As for the pope’s visit, which is rumoured to have been set up for May, the ambassador said: ‘‘We are working all the time and what happened in the last few days has not affected preparations’’. ‘‘The pope is welcome in Israel at any time’’.

(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JANUARY 26 — A rabbi-settler in favour, a voice from the radical Left is completely against it: there is no doubt that the opening of writer David Grossman to a possible dialogue with Hamas was the classic “stone thrown into the pond”. If it is wanted for the exacerbation of souls after Operation ‘Cast Lead’, for the imminence of upcoming elections (February 10), the reactions have been passionate, and in some ways surprising. Last week Grossman held with emphasis that Israel should start an extended dialogue with Hamas, to avoid the risk that, tied to fighting without end, the two peoples would fall together into an abyss. “We must also speak to those who don’t recognise our right to exist here”, the writer affirmed, convinced in the long term possibility of dialogue as the best guarantee for Israeli security. The article (published at the same time by ‘la Repubblica’) was proposed by ‘Haaretz’ with the highest importance, on the front page. Yesterday, the seeds thrown by the novelist blossomed when in the same newspaper the rabbi-settler Menachem Froman put forth the flag for dialogue with Islamic fundamentalists. Something that wasn’t a complete surprise, in that Froman went to Gaza to speak with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, and Mahmud a-Zahar. Unfortunately, the time wasn’t ripe. Now Froman is returning to the march, more persuaded than ever that “to negotiate with Hamas, one must speak their language. On the basis of my personal experience — he explains — Israeli fundamentalists are better prepared to do that”. Froman isn’t promising anything, but notes: “There is hope for change. At least we can change”. A road that today is not advised to follow without the proper means according to one of the most famous voices from Israel’s Left, Yaron London. He says that he is still perturbed by the document that functions as Hamas’ constitution, “a classic anti-Semite text, based on the Koran and on the Protocols of Zion”, and that “expresses hatred towards the Jews in as much” and not only for Zionism. Hamas’ responsibility for the Jews are many, notes London: from the French Revolution to that of the Bolsheviks, to Masonry, to the First and Second World Wars, to the institution of the Western World and the lobbies that suck the resources from countries with a Jewish presence. Hamas “is a Nazi like movement, with which every type of dialogue would be in vain, before its force has been neutralised”, he affirms. When Europe looked for dialogue, London concludes, the Reich carried out worse crimes. When Nazism was beaten on the battlefield, “the political conceptions of the Germans change instantaneously”. (ANSAmed).

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 27 — The Ankara Government has urged the radical Palestinian Hamas movement to use peaceful means instead of the armed struggle to reach its objectives, said Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in an interview which appeared simultaneously in the Milliyet and Radikal newspapers. The Government of Turkey, which is a secular country, but whose population is mainly Muslim, has been accused of taking the side of Hamas during the Israeli ‘Fused Lead’ military offensive which caused more than 1,200 dead and over 4,300 injured among Palestinians. “Hamas must take a decision” said Babacan. “Do they want to be an armed organisation or a political movement? Our suggestion is that they work within the political system. The party which has the support of Hamas got 44 percent of the vote in the last election and this electoral base cannot be ignored”. Regarding relations between Israel and Turkey, who are tied by a long-standing strategic pact, and the damage which could be caused by the Government’s recent taking of Hamas’ side and the strong criticisms of Israel by Turkey , Babacan said that “Turkish-Israeli relations could have been damaged in the short term, but I do not expect negative results in the mid to long term”. (ANSAmed).

LONDON — Agents for Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency have monitored a meeting attended by Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas, Iranian Parliament speaker Ali Larinjani and Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top spy in the Middle East, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Larinjani and Jalili had flown from Tehran in an Iranian Air 727 to a military airport near Damascus, and from there they were driven by Syrian intelligence officers to Meshaal’s apartment.

Tehran, 26 Jan. (AKI) — Iran is threatening to transfer its investments from the United Arab Emirates to Turkey because of growing tension between over three contested islands in the Persian Gulf. Negotiations to return the islands from Tehran to Abu Dhabi have floundered as Iranian officials accused the UAE of harassing Iranians.

According to the Saudi newspaper, ‘al-Watan’, the latest threat came from Iranian MP Jawad Jahankir, who has reportedly threatened to push for all Iranian economic investments to be moved from Dubai to Turkey and other countries in the region.

“If the UAE continues to provoke us in this way, carrying out physical action against Iranians, following them and taking their fingerprints, then the Parliament will force the government to break diplomatic relations with them,” he said.

According to the Arab satellite television network, al-Arabiya, a second MP has even looked at possible scenarios of conflict between the two countries, saying that the negotiations for ownership of the three islands are only a pretext.

“We believe a good share of the Emirates’ territory is our land,” he said.

For this reason he has reportedly asked his government to take steps to force Abu Dhabi to pay more attention to Iranian citizens resident in the Arab country.

It seems that the UAE, which accepted an invitation to attend the Arab summit held in Doha on 16 January over the Gaza crisis , changed its mind about going when hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed to attend.

A media war broke out last year between the two countries Iranian media accused the Abu Dhabi authorities of failing to allow religious clerics to visit the Arab country after the expulsion of a Shia imam, while the UAE media have begun closely following the fate of Arab minorities that live in Iran.

In September 2008, the six Gulf Cooperation Council states condemned Tehran for opening offices on the disputed islands in the waters between Iran and the UAE.

Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunb islands are controlled by Iran but claimed by the United Arab Emirates with broad Arab support.

Iran says the two administrative offices on Abu Musa were to help ship registration and maritime rescue.

There were widespread fears that Iran would use the offices to gain greater control of shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway used by tankers carrying oil from the Persian Gulf to the open sea

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 27 — A Turkish barber who was sentenced to capital punishment in Saudi Arabia, but released later, is returning to Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported. The man, Sabri Bogday, was arrested in Riad in 2007 after a quarrel with an Egyptian neighbor and sentenced to beheading on 1 May 2008 on charges of “swearing at the God and the Prophet”. Later on Turkish President, Abdullah Gul, and Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, wrote letters and had phone conversations with Saudi Arabia King, Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, asking him to pardone the turkish citizen. Bogdas was released after a court in Jeddah accepted his repentance early in January. “Sabri Bogday will return to Turkey by the first plane from Jeddah to Istanbul”, the Turkish Embassy in Riad said. (ANSAmed).

MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered his administration to rework a controversial treason bill submitted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s cabinet, a top Kremlin official was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying on Tuesday.

Mr. Medvedev has taken note of public criticism of the bill and ordered a review to prevent the measure from curtailing human rights, his first deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov said, according to the state-connected ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies.

Human-rights activists have warned that the bill, submitted to parliament last month, could potentially allow authorities to brand any government critic a traitor.

The legislation would expand the definition of treason and add nongovernmental organizations to the list of banned recipients of state secrets. The government has repeatedly accused spy agencies of using NGOs as a cover. Critics warned that the loose wording would give authorities leeway to prosecute those who cooperate with international rights groups. Mr. Surkov acknowledged there was a danger of loose interpretation of such notions as state secret, espionage and state treason.

About 10 days ago, Kyrgyzstan’s two main Internet service providers — ns.kg and domain.kg — came under a massive online assault. The Wall Street Journal now reports that the cyber-attack may have been orchestrated by a Russia-based “cyber militia,” although it provides few additional details about who, exactly, was responsible.

The story (subscription only), quotes cyber-security expert Don Jackson of Internet security firm SecureWorks as saying the denial-of-service attacks managed to shut down more than 80 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s bandwidth. While both sites now seem to be up and running, several commentators have speculated that the attack is meant to thwart Kyrgyzstan’s embattled political opposition — which depends on the Internet to organize — or to pressure Kyrgyzstan’s government, which hosts a U.S. airbase outside of the capital, Bishkek.

Could this be a pattern? As we noted here earlier, Russian hackers staged denial-of-service attacks on Georgian government websites during last year’s war between Russia and Georgia. Similar attacks on Estonia in 2007 were rather breathlessly described as the world’s first proper “cyberwar.”

Pinning this on the Kremlin, however, is a bit harder. Certainly, there’s been a lot of geopolitical intrigue over Manas Air Base, which has been a crucial supply link for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The presence of a U.S. airbase on Kyrgyz soil may be an occasional irritant to Moscow, but Russia has of late been playing along with NATO’s wishes to establish a “northern corridor” to Afghanistan. And hints of a new Cold War notwithstanding, Russia also seems to be trying to build goodwill with the new U.S. administration. Just today, for instance, Russia reversed plans to deploy missiles to the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.

Using denial-of-service to clamp down opposition sounds a bit more plausible. During Kyrgyzstan’s “Tulip Revolution” in 2005, demonstrators often depended on cell phones and text messages to organize. In post-Soviet states, where a smaller portion of the population is online, the authorities often allow the Internet to thrive as an outlet for dissent and free expression while clamping down on traditional media. But when the net becomes a more effective organizing tool — or a more effective medium for investigative reporting — the powers that be begin to take note.

Jakarta, 27 Jan. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation has attacked a move by the country’s highest Islamic authority to impose bans on smoking, practising yoga and voting abstention. A ‘fatwa’ or a religious edict was issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) during its two-day national meeting in the West Sumatran town of Padangpanjang at the weekend.

NU deputy head Masdar F. Mas’udi said the MUI should not have inserted religion into the three matters. Yoga, as it is practised in Indonesia, he said, was a pastime and must not be seen in the context of religious worship.

He said that the MUI should not use “Islamic law” as a tool to discourage people from smoking.

“What’s important is to inform the public of the bad effects of smoking and urge the government to enforce policies to discourage smoking,” Masdar told the Indonesian daily The Jakarta Post.

He also said the MUI should “not bring in God and threaten people with hell” if it wanted to encourage Muslims to vote.

Some 700 clerics from the council agreed on Sunday that Muslims were forbidden to abstain from voting in elections if “qualified” candidates existed.

“Islam obliges Muslims to elect their leaders if the latter meet certain criteria,” Gusrizal Gazahar, MUI West Sumatra head, said after the meeting.

The criteria include “being Muslim, honest, brilliant and ready to fight for the people”, the council said.

It also forbade smoking by children and pregnant women, and in public places.

Muslims are also banned from practising certain aspects of yoga that contained Hindu elements such as chanting and meditation, it said.

But Muslims can continue to perform yoga for purely health reasons, the council added.

Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra also attacked the yoga ban as “excessive” and “counterproductive”.

However, he lauded the edicts against vote abstention and smoking, saying the former was “positive” in strengthening democracy and elected administrations.

Azyumardi, an assistant to vice president Jusuf Kalla, said the MUI had “compromised” and taken “accommodating” measures to partly forbid smoking, considering the fact that the tobacco industry employed so many workers and contributed much to the country’s economy.

The edict also included a ban on abortion unless the mother is a rape victim, the pregnancy endangers her life, or the foetus is aged less than five weeks old, as well as a ban on vasectomy because the process is “irreversible”.

A ban on marriage with minors, based on a 1974 law that forbids men under 19 and women under 16 years old from marriage was also issued by the council.

Jakarta, 27 Jan. (AKI) — A Christian political leader has criticised a religious edict or fatwa issued by Indonesia’s top Islamic body stating that only a Muslim could become president of the country. Sonny Wuisan, leader of the Christian Democratic Party (PKD) told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the edict from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) was unconstitutional and should be withdrawn.

“This fatwa is against the constitution and the MUI should limit itself to discussing religion,” Sonny Wuisan, secretary of the PKD told AKI.

The PKD is a very small Indonesian political party that in particular attracts Indonesians who are ethnic Chinese.

The Indonesian Ulema Council issued several fatwas or edicts including a ban on practising yoga, smoking and voting abstention during its conference in the West Sumatran town of Padangpanjang at the weekend.

The council said that Muslims should vote at forthcoming presidential elections in July if the candidates have certain characteristics such as “being Muslim”.

On the other hand some 700 clerics from the council agreed on Sunday that Muslims were forbidden to abstain from voting in elections if “qualified” candidates existed.

“Islam obliges Muslims to elect their leaders if the latter meet certain criteria,” Gusrizal Gazahar, MUI West Sumatra head, said after the meeting.

Wuisan stressed that all religions had a right to participate in the political process.

“This country has a Muslim majority, but it doesn’t mean that other religions do not count,” said Wuisan.

Although the country has the largest number of Muslims in the world, Indonesia has substantial Christian, Buddhist and Hindu minorities. The country’s constitution recognises five religions and allows all its citizens to run for public office.

At the same time of the six presidents that have been elected since independence , all were Muslims and all the candidates running in the forthcoming elections are Muslim.

The fatwas have no legal power but devout Muslims adhere to the rulings because ignoring a fatwa is considered a sin.

Indonesia has a population of 235 million people and 90 percent of them are Muslim. Most practise a moderate form of the faith.

Religious leaders and representatives of society call the directives “unconstitutional and unnecessary,” because they risk destroying the idea of “national unity.” In the past, the council of the ulemas has issued controversial edicts, contrary to pluralism.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — “Unconstitutional and unnecessary.” This is the view expressed by various Muslim religious leaders and members of civil society, on the fatwas issued by the Indonesian ulemas against the practice of yoga, the vice of smoking, and abstention from voting.

On January 25, 700 members of the Indonesian council of ulemas, meeting for an assembly in Padang Panjang, a city in the province of West Sumatra, issued a fatwa against yoga, smoking, and abstention from voting, explaining that all of these are “activities contrary to the precepts of Islam.”

The statement from the ulemas has unleashed a wave of protest in the country: smoking is dangerous to the health, but this is a choice that belongs to the private sphere of the individual, and should not be regulated with a religious edict. The situation is similar for yoga, which should be considered a means for releasing stress and tension for many Indonesians living in large urban areas. Indonesian Muslims, both religious and lay figures, therefore maintain that the directives of the ulemas are “unnecessary and contrary to the constitution,” threatening the idea of “national unity” and the concept of a pluralistic society.

“What mainly concerns me is the potential threat that these fatwas would be imposed on all Indonesian citizens, no matter what their religion,” says Fadjroel Rachman, a Muslim political activist, echoing the statements of Indonesia’s vice president, Jusuf Kalla, who has warned the ulemas not to issue “controversial” fatwas capable of “undermining national unity.”

Criticism is also coming from the two main moderate Muslim organizations in the country, the Nahdlatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah, which call the pronouncements “unnecessary” and destined to be “ignored” by the majority of citizens. In reference to the position of the ulemas on smoking, Hasyim Muzadi — president of the Nahdlatul Ulama — stresses that it would be more correct to define the vice of smoking as “makruh,”which means “bad” or “to be discouraged,” rather than “illicit.”

Formed in 1975 by former president Suharto, the council of the ulemas has repeatedly provoked controversy among Indonesian Muslims. It enjoys the support of Muslims who are close to the fundamentalist fringe of the country, and has issued a series of controversial edicts, including the banning of interreligious prayers and mixed marriages, in addition to campaigns against religious pluralism, liberalism, and state secularism.

MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua — The second military helicopter in as many days hovered over the jungle and then landed to a most unwelcome reception from several dozen angry Rama Indian and Creole villagers.

Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, a leader of some 400 Creole who live along the shoreline, confronted the foreigners dressed in suits and military uniforms that day in March and demanded to know the purpose of their aerial trespasses.

“This is our land; we have always lived here, and you don’t have our permission to be here,” Duncan spat, when refused the courtesy of an explanation.

Not until Duncan threatened to have his machete-waving followers damage the aircraft did they learn that some of the men were from the Islamic Republic of Iran and had come promising to establish a Central American foothold in the middle of their territory.

As part of a new partnership with Nicaragua’s Sandinista President Daniel Ortega, Iran and its Venezuelan allies plan to help finance a $350 million deep-water port at Monkey Point on the wild Caribbean shore, and then plow a connecting “dry canal” corridor of pipelines, rails and highways across the country to the populous Pacific Ocean. Iran recently established an embassy in Nicaragua’s capital.

In feeling threatened by Iran’s ambitions, the people of Monkey Point have powerful company. The Iranians’ arrival in Nicaragua comes as the Bush administration and some European allies hold the threat of war over Iran to force an end to its uranium enrichment program and alleged help to anti-U.S. insurgents in Iraq.

What worries state department officials, former national security officials and counterterrorism researchers is that, if attacked, Iran could stage strikes on American or allied interests from Nicaragua, deploying the Iranian terrorist group Hezbollah and Revolutionary Guard operatives already in Latin America.

Lampedusa, 27 Jan. (AKI) — Fifteen hundred residents on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Tuesday protested against the conservative Italian government’s plans to open a new detention centre for illegal immigrants. Local authorities also urged shopkeepers and other businesses to remain closed.

“Free Lampedusa!” the protesters chanted. Locals fear the island is being turned into a ‘Mediterranean Alcatraz’ by interior minister Roberto Maroni’s decision not to transfer illegal immigrants arriving on Lampedusa elsewhere in Italy .

Under Maroni’s instructions, the illegal immigrants are to be kept on the island for identification. They will then be deported unless they are eligible for political asylum, refugee or protected status.

Some have been held in the island’s current detention centre for over a month. The centre, which was designed to hold a maximum 800 people for a few days at a time, has for over a week been severely overcrowded.

There were 1,000 people being held there on Tuesday after 130 other illegal immigrants were overnight transferred to a military base as an emergency measure, and 100 others who requested political asylum were transferred to a centre in the southern Italian city of Crotone.

The Organisation for International Organisation for Migration, the Save the Children Charity and the Red Cross on Monday sent a memo to Maroni underlining their “grave concern” at conditions in the Lampedusa detention centre.

“The prolonged detention of migrants there risks further inflaming a situation that with the breakout of hundreds of immigrants has reached unprecedented gravity and danger,” the OIM, Red Cross and Save the Children said.

At the weekend hundreds of detainees forced open the detention centre’s gates and held a peaceful protest in the central square chanting “Freedom, Freedom!” and “We don’t want to go back there!” They were reportedly joined by some Lampedusa residents.

Last week up to 1,850 people illegal immigrants were crammed inside the centre. The move sparked criticism from the opposition and from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) as many people were forced to sleep outdoors in a rubbish-strewn ‘tent city’.

Lampedusa residents also held a protest and a general strike over the ‘militarisation’ of the picturesque island which they claim is damaging its tourist trade.

Maroni was in Tunisia on Tuesday to seek an accord with the government to repatriate a reported 1,000 of its nationals currently staying in the Lampedusa detention centre.

The number of would-be illegal immigrants arriving in Italy by sea soared 75 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year to 36,900. Of these, some 31,000 landed on Lampedusa.

The government hopes that preventing illegal immigrants from reaching the rest of Italy will discourage people traffickers from using the relatively short and less dangerous route from North Africa to Lampedusa, one of the easiest ways for their rickety boats to reach Europe.

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JANUARY 27- According to today’s edition of Francophone Tunisian newspaper, Le Quotidien, France will deport 26,000 illegal immigrants this year, the same amount as last year. The newspaper attributes the decision to new French Minister of Immigration and Integration, ex socialist Eric Besson, who according to Le Quotidien, spedcified taht he was working “on 26,000 but I do not know if that will be the final number”, referring to the possibility of voluntary re-entries. Besson also asked President Sarkozy to grant him wider jurisdiction “be able to integrate other criteria” for assessment. Besson said that “in a few days there will be an interdepartmental meeting to give the go ahead on applying” Dna testing, voted on in 2007 in an immigration control law, but not yet operative. He also specified that the test “is a potential right, but not obligatory”, and can be useful if there is “difficulty in determining family status”. (ANSAmed)

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JANUARY 27 — Full willingness to cooperate over illegal immigration was repeated this morning in Tunis, during the meeting between Minister for the Interior Roberto Maroni and his Tunisian counterpart Rafik Belhay Kacem. The meeting was organised in a few hours following the emergency on Lampedusa. Italy is asking Tunisia to take back the Tunisian migrants who make up part of the 1,300 illegal immigrants crowding the Sicilian island. The request was made as part of the agreements between the two countries, the first of which was signed in 1998, and reinforced in 2003. However, problems in carrying out the agreement have recently been confirmed. During the afternoon, before another meeting between the two ministers, the Italian delegation led by Police Chief Antonio Manganelli will confront the technical-operational details of the repatriation with their Tunisian counterparts. (ANSAmed).

There are now ten schools in England without a single pupil who speaks English as his or her first language.

Research reveals that there are almost 600 primary schools where 70 per cent or more of youngsters normally speak a foreign language.

Across the country, one in seven pupils aged 4-11 does not have English as the first language, which is the equivalent of 466,620 children.

But, following years of unprecedented levels of migration, ten schools have now reached a point where every youngster falls into this category.

Their locations range from London to Lancashire. One, St Hilda’s in Oldham, is a Church of England school.

Some schools are in areas with long-established Muslim populations. In others, the high number of non-English speakers is the consequence of large-scale immigration from Eastern Europe.

Labour MP Frank Field and Tory MP Nicholas Soames, co-chairmen of the Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration, said: ‘These figures make a nonsense of the Government’s aim of integration and show the very real strain that uncontrolled large scale immigration is already placing upon our society…

The groups that elected Barack Obama are poised to cash in on their investment, and the feminists are muscling to be first in line. The National Organization for Women, bragging that “we all worked hard to help elect” Obama, has helpfully spelled out the “feminist action agenda”:

Pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to repeal the statute of limitations and allow women to sue employers for alleged wage discrimination long after bosses are dead and unable to defend their actions. The feminists made this their first priority, the House and Senate quickly acquiesced, and President Obama is itching to sign the bill.

Direct Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to compare pay scales in job categories held mostly by women or mostly by men, and then enforce wage control to equalize wages according to the feminists’ subjective definition of what they call comparable worth.

Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to require paid parental and family leave at the option of the employee, rather than unpaid leave as allowed in current law. Reject all proposals to allow any portion of Social Security contributions to be paid into individual investment accounts.

I’ve been studying radical Islam since 1979. I’ve been writing about it since the early 1980s. I’m considered an authoritative expert on the subject by many. I’ve lectured all over the world on the topic in the last 10 years.

Yet, I have to tell you, Spencer’s new book has been an eye-opener even for me.

When I first saw the title, “Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam Is Subverting America Without Guns or Bombs,” I thought: “I’m not sure people are going to be as concerned by the stealth jihadists as they are about those with the guns and bombs.”

But after reading this amazing book, I realize the bigger threat to America comes from the subtle, sophisticated stealth jihadists who are, in fact, winning over the hearts and minds of Americans at a most unlikely time in history — when jihadists have openly declared war on America and shown they mean it.

Spencer reveals the interlocking connections of the most important stealth jihadist groups and individuals actively subverting our country and Western Civilization. He shows how they are winning the day — despite a record of arrests, indictments, trials and convictions for their own covert support of violent jihadists.

Worse yet, he exposes the foreign money trail that supports these groups and individuals — a money trail that starts right back in countries supporting the violent jihadists in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Palestinian Authority. […]

Whenever a religious belief is criticised, its adherents say they’re victims of ‘prejudice’

[Comment from Tuan Jim: Not bad, but naturally they just had to go with the stupid moral equivalence BS and claim that Christianity is as bad as Islam in this issue. — wonder why it never came up before at Jihad Watch’s transcripts from their discussions?]

The right to criticise religion is being slowly doused in acid. Across the world, the small, incremental gains made by secularism — giving us the space to doubt and question and make up our own minds — are being beaten back by belligerent demands that we “respect” religion. A historic marker has just been passed, showing how far we have been shoved. The UN rapporteur who is supposed to be the global guardian of free speech has had his job rewritten — to put him on the side of the religious censors.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated 60 years ago that “a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief is the highest aspiration of the common people”. It was a Magna Carta for mankind — and loathed by every human rights abuser on earth. Today, the Chinese dictatorship calls it “Western”, Robert Mugabe calls it “colonialist”, and Dick Cheney calls it “outdated”. The countries of the world have chronically failed to meet it — but the document has been held up by the United Nations as the ultimate standard against which to check ourselves. Until now.

Starting in 1999, a coalition of Islamist tyrants, led by Saudi Arabia, demanded the rules be rewritten. The demand for everyone to be able to think and speak freely failed to “respect” the “unique sensitivities” of the religious, they decided — so they issued an alternative Islamic Declaration of Human Rights. It insisted that you can only speak within “the limits set by the shariah [law]. It is not permitted to spread falsehood or disseminate that which involves encouraging abomination or forsaking the Islamic community”.

In other words, you can say anything you like, as long as it precisely what the reactionary mullahs tell you to say. The declaration makes it clear there is no equality for women, gays, non-Muslims, or apostates. It has been backed by the Vatican and a bevy of Christian fundamentalists.

Incredibly, they are succeeding. The UN’s Rapporteur on Human Rights has always been tasked with exposing and shaming those who prevent free speech — including the religious. But the Pakistani delegate recently demanded that his job description be changed so he can seek out and condemn “abuses of free expression” including “defamation of religions and prophets”. The council agreed — so the job has been turned on its head. Instead of condemning the people who wanted to murder Salman Rushdie, they will be condemning Salman Rushdie himself.

Anything which can be deemed “religious” is no longer allowed to be a subject of discussion at the UN — and almost everything is deemed religious. Roy Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union has tried to raise topics like the stoning of women accused of adultery or child marriage. The Egyptian delegate stood up to announce discussion of shariah “will not happen” and “Islam will not be crucified in this council” — and Brown was ordered to be silent. Of course, the first victims of locking down free speech about Islam with the imprimatur of the UN are ordinary Muslims.

Here is a random smattering of events that have taken place in the past week in countries that demanded this change. In Nigeria, divorced women are routinely thrown out of their homes and left destitute, unable to see their children, so a large group of them wanted to stage a protest — but the Shariah police declared it was “un-Islamic” and the marchers would be beaten and whipped. In Saudi Arabia, the country’s most senior government-approved cleric said it was perfectly acceptable for old men to marry 10-year-old girls, and those who disagree should be silenced. In Egypt, a 27-year-old Muslim blogger Abdel Rahman was seized, jailed and tortured for arguing for a reformed Islam that does not enforce shariah.

To the people who demand respect for Muslim culture, I ask: which Muslim culture? Those women’s, those children’s, this blogger’s — or their oppressors’?

As the secular campaigner Austin Darcy puts it: “The ultimate aim of this effort is not to protect the feelings of Muslims, but to protect illiberal Islamic states from charges of human rights abuse, and to silence the voices of internal dissidents calling for more secular government and freedom.”

Those of us who passionately support the UN should be the most outraged by this.

Underpinning these “reforms” is a notion seeping even into democratic societies — that atheism and doubt are akin to racism. Today, whenever a religious belief is criticised, its adherents immediately claim they are the victims of “prejudice” — and their outrage is increasingly being backed by laws.

All people deserve respect, but not all ideas do. I don’t respect the idea that a man was born of a virgin, walked on water and rose from the dead. I don’t respect the idea that we should follow a “Prophet” who at the age of 53 had sex with a nine-year old girl, and ordered the murder of whole villages of Jews because they wouldn’t follow him.

I don’t respect the idea that the West Bank was handed to Jews by God and the Palestinians should be bombed or bullied into surrendering it. I don’t respect the idea that we may have lived before as goats, and could live again as woodlice. This is not because of “prejudice” or “ignorance”, but because there is no evidence for these claims. They belong to the childhood of our species, and will in time look as preposterous as believing in Zeus or Thor or Baal.

When you demand “respect”, you are demanding we lie to you. I have too much real respect for you as a human being to engage in that charade.

But why are religious sensitivities so much more likely to provoke demands for censorship than, say, political sensitivities? The answer lies in the nature of faith. If my views are challenged I can, in the end, check them against reality. If you deregulate markets, will they collapse? If you increase carbon dioxide emissions, does the climate become destabilised? If my views are wrong, I can correct them; if they are right, I am soothed.

But when the religious are challenged, there is no evidence for them to consult. By definition, if you have faith, you are choosing to believe in the absence of evidence. Nobody has “faith” that fire hurts, or Australia exists; they know it, based on proof. But it is psychologically painful to be confronted with the fact that your core beliefs are based on thin air, or on the empty shells of revelation or contorted parodies of reason. It’s easier to demand the source of the pesky doubt be silenced.

But a free society cannot be structured to soothe the hardcore faithful. It is based on a deal. You have an absolute right to voice your beliefs — but the price is that I too have a right to respond as I wish. Neither of us can set aside the rules and demand to be protected from offence.

Yet this idea — at the heart of the Universal Declaration — is being lost. To the right, it thwacks into apologists for religious censorship; to the left, it dissolves in multiculturalism. The hijacking of the UN Special Rapporteur by religious fanatics should jolt us into rescuing the simple, battered idea disintegrating in the middle: the equal, indivisible human right to speak freely.

In a 83-to-53 vote, with 42 abstentions, the U.N. General Assembly urges nations to provide “adequate protections” in their laws or constitutions against “acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.”

Only Islam and Muslims are specifically named in this resolution against religious defamation sponsored by Uganda — on behalf of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference — with co-sponsors Belarus and Venezuela. In the opposition were the United States, a majority of European countries, Japan, India and a number of other nations.

Those voting in favor say they do not want to limit free speech but do intend to stop such expressions as the 2005 Danish cartoons disrespecting the Prophet Muhammad that ignited violent protests by Muslims around the world.